By George Ozalla
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and its partners have stepped up efforts to develop Africa’s automotive industry, with a focus on attracting investment, expanding local manufacturing, transferring technology and creating skilled jobs across the continent.
The initiative was discussed at the two-day Africa Automotive Investment Forum held in El Alamein, Egypt, through a partnership involving Afreximbank, the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM), the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Investment, and South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry.
The forum brought together African automotive policymakers, international vehicle manufacturers, investors and companies producing automotive components on the continent to discuss the reforms and investment needed to build a stronger African automotive sector.
Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development, Kanayo Awani, said the automotive sector was important to Africa’s industrial development and the bank’s efforts to expand trade and strengthen regional manufacturing.
Awani explained that investment in vehicle and component manufacturing could create skilled employment for Africa’s growing youth population while giving small and medium-sized enterprises opportunities to supply larger manufacturers.
She identified vehicle components as an important investment area, noting that Africa could draw on its technical workforce and mineral resources, including lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, copper and iron, to develop competitive manufacturing capacity.
Afreximbank has committed $1 billion to financing Africa’s automotive sector. The funding is intended to support the development of an integrated continental industry, including vehicle manufacturing, component production and supply chains connecting businesses across African countries.
The forum also witnessed an agreement between South Africa’s Malben Engineering and Egypt’s El Araby Group to establish a joint venture for manufacturing automotive components. The proposed partnership is expected to combine El Araby Group’s industrial, engineering and technological capabilities with Malben Engineering’s experience in producing metal automotive components.
The two companies intend to use the partnership to serve markets across Africa and strengthen regional supply chains.
President of the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers, Tarek Mosaad, said the agreement on rules of origin for the automotive sector under the AfCFTA provided a foundation for a more integrated African industry.
He stressed the need to turn policy commitments into practical results through factory development, stronger supplier networks, job creation and increased trade in automotive products.
Mosaad identified three priorities for the industry: increasing local content through regional value chains, making cross-border movement of automotive products easier and ensuring Africa plays a meaningful role in shaping the future of mobility.
He called on investors to view Africa as an integrated market rather than a collection of separate national markets.
Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, highlighted the need to prepare investment-ready projects, develop competitive manufacturing locations, strengthen regional supplier networks and expand local production.
These measures, he said, would help establish commercially viable regional manufacturing and advance the implementation of Africa’s automotive industry strategy.
The forum’s organisers said the gathering was designed to bring policymakers, manufacturers and investors together to identify policy reforms, encourage partnerships and facilitate supply agreements that could lead to new investments.
